WFSA has delivered a statement to the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa (RC76) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, urging Member States to make the surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia workforce visible in national health workforce planning.
The statement, delivered by WFSA Council Member Sompwe Mwansa (Zambia), was in response to the Africa Health Workforce Agenda, 2026–2035, a ten-year framework being considered by health ministers from across the Region. While welcoming the Agenda, WFSA warned that none of its occupational categories captures the teams that deliver emergency, critical and operative (ECO) care — meaning that a country could meet every target in the Agenda and still have no functioning surgical or anaesthesia workforce.
With WFSA Member Society anaesthesiologists leading services in 33 countries across the Region, and many countries falling well below one anaesthesiologist per 100,000 population, WFSA called on Member States to draw on national surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia plans to ensure this vital workforce is counted, planned for, budgeted for and reported on.
The statement is reproduced in full below.
Agenda item 8 — Africa Health Workforce Agenda, 2026–2035 (AFR/RC76/4)
WFSA Member Society anaesthesiologists lead services in 33 countries across the Region. We welcome this Agenda.
Anaesthesiologists are specialists in patient safety, with expertise in pain management, airway care, perioperative medicine, intensive care and blood management. We work along the entire patient pathway. Yet our continent suffers acute and chronic shortages of this vital workforce, with many countries well below one anaesthesiologist per 100,000 population.
Emergency, critical and operative care depends on teams, and none of this Agenda’s occupational categories captures them. A country could meet every target here and still have no functioning surgical or anaesthesia workforce. What is not counted is not planned for, not budgeted for, and not reported on.
We therefore ask Member States to make the surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia workforce visible within national staffing norms and workforce accounts, drawing on national surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia plans where these exist.
WFSA stands ready to support
